🇪🇬🇺🇸Gaza plans put Egypt-US relations to tough test
In the bustling heart of Cairo, coffee shops teem with Gazans who managed to flee at the start of Israel's devastating war on Hamas. Although they have found safety, they remain worried about loved ones back home.
In the past few days here, Egyptian intelligence officials have been meeting Hamas leaders to shore up the shaky ceasefire. Tens of millions of Egyptians - tuning into the constant news updates - already feel their country's intimate involvement in the war in Gaza.
But now - with President Trump's surprise post-war vision, which proposes displacing two million Palestinians to "a parcel of land" in Egypt and Jordan, so that the US can take over the territory - they fear an existential threat.
Egyptians flocking to Friday prayers say Trump's idea needs a reality check.
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🇺🇸🇷🇺Ukraine war talks start now, Trump says after Putin call
US President Donald Trump has said he had a "lengthy and highly productive" phone call with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in which the leaders agreed to begin negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he and the Russian president had "agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately".
Later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had spoken with Trump about a "lasting, reliable peace".
The calls with the warring sides came as both Trump and his defence secretary said it was unlikely Ukraine would join Nato, which will come as a bitter disappointment to Kyiv.
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🇮🇳🇫🇷India and France plan small modular nuclear reactors
India and France plan to work together on developing small modular nuclear reactors, India's foreign ministry said after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the country.
Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron emphasised the importance of nuclear energy for "strengthening energy security" and transitioning towards a "low-carbon economy".
It comes days after Delhi announced plans to change its strict nuclear liability law, which holds operators accountable for accidents or incidents and has been blamed for delays to previous nuclear projects.
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🇺🇸🇯🇴Trump insists US will take Gaza as he meets Jordan's King Abdullah
President Donald Trump has once again insisted the US will take control of the Gaza Strip, as he met Jordan's King Abdullah at the White House on Tuesday.
It was their first meeting since Trump announced his proposal to take over the enclave and move its population of two million Palestinians to other countries in the region, including Jordan.
Earlier this week, Trump suggested he could withhold aid to Jordan and Egypt unless they agreed to take in those Palestinians from Gaza.
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🇨🇫CAR leader launches meme-coin 'experiment'
Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadéra has launched a meme-coin in a bid to raise the profile of the country, which is one of the world's poorest.
Meme-coins are used to build popularity for a viral internet trend or movement and fans are inspired to collect and give them value, but they are extremely volatile investments.
Touadéra announced the launch, known as $ CAR, on his X account over the weekend and on Monday said it had been a "success". But the value of the coin had a significant price drop of up to 90%, according to specialist websites.
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🇳🇿New Zealand and Cook Islands fall out over China deal
New Zealand has accused the Cook Islands government of a lack of transparency over its plans to strike a partnership deal with China.
The tiny Pacific Island nation's leader, Mark Brown, is this week making his country's first ever state visit to Beijing in order to sign the agreement.
However, New Zealand says it was not properly consulted over the plans, leading to what Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has described as a "dispute".
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🇺🇸Trump wants to end birthright citizenship.
President Donald Trump's executive order to end birthright citizenship in the US has sparked several legal challenges and some anxiety among immigrant families.
For nearly 160 years, the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution has established the principle that anyone born in the country is a US citizen.
But as part of his crackdown on migrant numbers, Trump is seeking to deny citizenship to children of migrants who are either in the country illegally or on temporary visas.
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🇸🇩Sudan army plans new government as it advances in capital
The Sudanese military has called for diplomatic support for a new government that it says it wants to form after it recaptures the capital, Khartoum, from rival forces.
The Sudanese army has been regaining control of areas in the city previously held by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in recent weeks.
Army leader Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan told a meeting of politicians who back the army over the weekend that he would form a "technocratic" wartime government with a prime minister.
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🇨🇩African summit urges immediate DR Congo ceasefire
Leaders from east and southern Africa have called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end the deadly fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
At a crisis summit in Tanzania, the Southern African Development Community and East African Community (EAC) blocs urged all warring parties to hold peace talks within five days, including with the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.
The rebels - fighting government forces - have seized vast swathes of land in the eastern DR Congo, including the city of Goma. Their push towards Bukavu has raised fears of a wider regional war.
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🇳🇦First president of Namibia dies aged 95
The first president of independent Namibia, Sam Nujoma, has died at the age of 95 in the capital Windhoek, the country's current leader has announced.
Nujoma led the long fight for independence from South Africa in 1990 after helping found Namibia's liberation movement known as the South West Peoples' Organisation (Swapo) in the 1960s.
After independence, Nujoma became president in 1990 and led the country until 2005.
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🇺🇸🇨🇳Trump suspends tariffs on small packages from China
US President Donald Trump has suspended tariffs on small packages from China, after his sudden order ending duty-free treatment for shipments worth less than $800 (£645) left the US postal service and other agencies scrambling to comply.
The postal service temporarily stopped accepting packages from China as a result of the order, only to reverse course a day later.
The chaos left many in the US wondering about the fate of packages ordered from companies such as Shein and Temu, which had used the exemption for low-value packages to expand rapidly in the US.
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🇺🇸Trump signs order banning transgender women from female sports
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that prevents transgender women from competing in female categories of sports.
The order provides guidance, regulations and legal interpretations, and it will enlist the Department of Education to investigate high schools thought to be non-compliant.
Republicans say it restores fairness to sports but LGBT advocacy and human rights organisations have described the move as discriminatory.
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🇵🇦🇺🇸Panama denies US claims over free canal passages
Panama has denied making changes to allow US government vessels to transit the Panama Canal for free, following White House claims it had agreed to such a move.
The State Department said in a statement on X that its government vessels "can now transit the Panama Canal without charge fees, saving the US government millions of dollars a year".
Responding to the comments, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) said it was "empowered to set tolls and other fees for transiting the canal," adding that it had "not made any adjustments to them".
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🇲🇼Malawi president orders troops to withdraw from DR Congo
Malawi's President Lazarus Chakwera has ordered the military to begin preparing to withdraw from their peacekeeping mission in the volatile eastern Democratic of Congo.
The Malawian troops are part of the southern African regional bloc's military mission (SAMIDRC) deployed to DR Congo to help tackle armed groups.
At least 20 peacekeepers, including 14 South Africans and three Malawians, were killed as the M23 rebels captured the key city of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, last week.
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🇨🇳🇺🇸Beijing hits back – can China and US avoid trade war escalation?
Beijing has made its decision. After days of warning of counter measures and urging Washington to enter negotiations and "meet China halfway", it has decided to hit back – or at least threaten to retaliate with its own tariffs.
China said it would implement a 15% tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas products as well as a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars imported from the US from 10 February.
The date is important. It means there is still time for the world's two largest economies to step back from the brink of a trade war.
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🇱🇧Senior UN peacekeeper injured in convoy attack in Lebanon
The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon says its outgoing deputy commander has been injured after one of its convoys was "violently attacked".
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said in a statement that the convoy was taking peacekeepers to Beirut airport when it was targeted and one of its vehicles set on fire.
Protesters have been blocking the road to the airport following a decision by the Lebanese government to bar two Iranian planes from landing.
Both Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun and the country's army condemned the attack on Unifil, and said they would work to arrest those involved.
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🇬🇭Ghana's ex-finance minister declared a fugitive
Ghana's former finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta has been declared a fugitive by prosecutors over his alleged involvement in multiple corruption cases when he was in government.
Ofori-Atta had left Ghana to evade investigations, and all necessary steps would be taken to bring him back, Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyabeng said.
Ofori-Atta has been accused of causing financial losses to the state, including over a controversial national cathedral, which remains a hole in the ground despite the alleged spending of $58m (£46.6m) of government money.
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🇷🇺🇸🇩'No obstacles' to Russian Red Sea base - Sudan
Sudan has said a final deal has been agreed with Russia to establish a naval base on the war-torn country's Red Sea coast, saying there were "no obstacles" to it.
An agreement was discussed under former President Omar al-Bashir, but the military government that overthrew him had later said the matter was under review.
Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Youssef said on Wednesday a deal had been signed and they were in "complete agreement" with Russia over the establishment of the port. He said what remained was only the ratification of the deal.
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🇺🇸Hegseth orders Fort Liberty be renamed Fort Bragg
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered military base Fort Liberty, located in North Carolina, be reverted to Fort Bragg.
The order contravenes a measure backed in Congress that led to the renaming of the army base in 2023, which was part of a wider initiative to rename military installations commemorating figures linked to the Confederacy.
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🇺🇸Trump says no exemptions with metal tariffs to start in March
President Donald Trump has ordered a 25% import tax on all steel and aluminium entering the US in a major expansion of existing trade barriers.
The tariffs, which will increase the costs of importing the metals into the US, come despite warnings of retaliation from some political leaders in Canada - America's biggest supplier of the metals - as well as other countries.
US businesses dependent on the imports have also raised concerns, but Trump has said his plans will boost domestic production.
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🇷🇴Romania president resigns after impeachment pressure over cancelled vote
Romania's President Klaus Iohannis has resigned, a day before he faced an impeachment vote sparked by the cancellation of the country's presidential election last year.
Opponents had been pushing to suspend him over his decision to remain in office until a new vote in May.
Romania's top court in December controversially annulled the election because of Russian state meddling allegations Iohannis had helped raise.
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🇪🇨Ecuador election ends in a 'tie' prompting run-off
Ecuador's presidential election will go to a second round after a closely contested first-round result failed to produce an outright winner.
The electoral authorities called it a "technical tie" after the incumbent centre-right Daniel Noboa and his main left-wing challenger Luisa Gonzalez received nearly identical percentages of the vote.
The pair will now face a run-off in April.
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🇺🇸Trump administration to cut billions from overheads in biomedical research
President Donald Trump's administration has announced it will slash billions of dollars from overheads in grants for biomedical research as a part of broader cost-saving measures, a move some scientists say will stifle scientific advancements.
In a statement on Friday, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said it would cut grants for "indirect costs" related to research - such as buildings, utilities and equipment.
"The United States should have the best medical research in the world," NIH said in its announcement. "It is accordingly vital to ensure that as many funds as possible go towards direct scientific research costs rather than administrative overhead."
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🇺🇸Judge blocks Musk team access to Treasury Department records
A federal judge has blocked Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) from accessing the personal financial data of millions of Americans in Treasury Department records, according to court documents.
US District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued a preliminary injunction on Saturday to prohibit access, ordering Musk and his team to immediately destroy any copies of records.
The move comes after 19 state attorneys general sued the Trump administration after Doge, a cost-cutting initiative led by Musk, was given access to the records.
They argued access for Musk, a "special government employee", and Doge, which is not an official government department, violated federal law.
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🇸🇬Jailed Singapore ex-minister moved to house arrest
A former senior minister in Singapore's government, who was jailed following a high-profile trial last year, has been allowed to serve the remainder of his 12-month sentence from home.
Subramaniam Iswaran was imprisoned on 7 October after he pleaded guilty to accepting gifts worth more than S$403,000 ($300,000; £240,000) while in office, as well as obstructing the course of justice.
Iswaran's case gripped Singapore, where a corruption case involving a public official is rare. The island nation that serves as South East Asia's financial hub prides itself with its squeaky clean image.
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🇺🇸🇿🇦Trump signs order freezing aid to South Africa over land law
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order freezing financial aid to South Africa, after threatening to do so earlier this week.
Trump said he was bringing in the order because of South Africa's new land law, which he says is violating people's rights, and also because of its international court case accusing Israel of genocide.
It escalates a dispute between the two countries nearly a week after Trump threatened to cut funding without citing evidence, that "South Africa is confiscating land" and "certain classes of people" were being treated "very badly".
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🇧🇩Protesters torch ex-Bangladesh PM's home
Protesters in Bangladesh have vandalised and set fire to the former family home of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, as well as those of other members of her party.
The unrest was sparked by news that Hasina would address the country via social media from India, where she has been in exile since student-led protests ousted her last year.
Hasina, who had ruled the country for 20 years, was seen as an autocrat whose government ruthlessly clamped down on dissent.
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🇦🇺Mandatory jail for Nazi salutes under new Australia laws
Hate symbols and terror offences will be punishable with mandatory jail terms ranging from one to six years in Australia, after lawmakers passed a series of amendments to hate crime laws on Thursday.
The new laws were passed on Thursday amid a wave of high profile antisemitic attacks which have become a heated topic of debate in the country.
The amendments have been described by officials as the "toughest laws Australia has ever had against hate crimes".
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🇺🇸🇲🇽US and Mexico reach deal to put tariffs on hold - for now
US President Donald Trump has delayed introducing 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico for a month while the two countries hold "negotiations".
Trump said he would "immediately pause the anticipated tariffs", which were due to come into force on Tuesday.
The last-minute breakthrough came after a phone call between Trump and President Claudia Sheinbaum, in which the Mexican leader agreed to send 10,000 members of the National Guard to the US-Mexican border to "prevent the trafficking of drugs, in particular fentanyl, from Mexico to the US".
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South Africa's president calls Musk to calm Trump land row
South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has moved to defuse a row with the new US administration over a new land law by speaking to Elon Musk.
Mr Musk is a close adviser to US President Donald Trump, who on Sunday threatened to cut all future funding to South Africa over allegations that it was confiscating land and "treating certain classes of people very badly".
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